Dave's Addiction

Showed up to the race, saw the Moodys and Carl so I knew it would be a tough race but if I could just get within a minute of Steve Sumsion it would be a good day. Lots of SRC jerseys! Everything went according to plan, but I never got the afterburners lit after the big hill. The lead group provided a perfect wind shield on the uphill leg and seemed to run at just the right speed, almost too fast to keep up with. But they finished the first mile in 5:35 instead of 5:31 like last year - must have been more wind. I got to the bottom of the hill still in the orange and passed the fence at 8:10 pace, 1 minute faster than last year. When I got to the top I was pretty nuked but still within 100 meters of the group and able to accelerate within 20 seconds. But I never got the mojo I have been feeling the last few weeks - I was stuck in the 5:40 to 5:55 level and unable to clear the lactic.They pulled away slowly and I was passed by 1 additional person.

Wait a minute. I just looked more carefully at the track and I spent a lot of time in the 5:30s on the way down. It wasn't the 5:19 I was hoping for, but it looks like this race got blown away by the wind up the first leg. The lead group dropped to 6 flat for about a half mile whereas last year they were at 5:45 at that point. In fact my splits were 5:34, 6:10 with the big hill, and 5:36. I am really annoyed that I didn't get 17 flat, but pretty stoked about my recovery on the second half of the race. Also the GPS was reading a bit slow and short today so those splits are actually a bit faster. I got within 1:17 of SS (2 seconds closer) and I beat last years time by 3 seconds. Bleah. I should have done much better. Maybe I should not have run to the race.

EZ 8 with a break at the gym for upper body. Tried to run slow but averaged 7:20. Still annoyed by Saturday, going to run angry at AF. It will be fun :)

I am going to go for 60 this week. But today was a run with Sasha and Ben - same workout as last week. The first mile felt like less than tempo pace, forgot to breathe a few times. (5:30) The second mile got into the yellow, but not too far. I did have a little hunger because I was trying to get under 150, looks like my base muscle weight has come up 3 pounds and I will just have to deal with it. There just isn't any fat to burn. Anyway, felt a little weak there but it went away after 2.25 because it was time to push. I tried a little too hard, kind of coasted on the third quarter, and then decided to give it everything on the last. They passed me anyway but it felt good to give everything I could. (5:23, 5:13) Unfortunately not enough of the run was in the yellow or better zone to count as a sufficient speed workout for the week, so I will pace Ben in the last four miles of UV half. Maybe I will bring a 1:16 pacer sign just to look legit :)

Getting bored with the 8 EZs so I threw in an 8X10 hill sprint at the end. That was different. Harder and easier at the same time.

I didn't want to do another EZ today, but with a nasty workout coming up Saturday I didn't want to go all the way to 10 hard either. So I split the difference and did a 10 HardEZ. Ha ha. I ran 1 easy then 1 hard on the 10 hard course, hard being somewhere between marathon and half marathon pace except the last one which I pushed a little past HM and almost to Threshold. EZ average as a little under 8, hard was a little under 6. We'll see how that goes for tomorrow.

Well what do you know - it really is exactly 5K to John's house.

 EZ 6

OK, so today's goal was to pace Benjamin Pachev in on his first run of any kind longer than 10 miles. It was hard to do the math for some reason, but I knew that if I started running at 5:30 at Provo Towne Center I could go up 8.5 and catch MM9 52 minutes into the race, just before he passed it, assuming that it was 2 miles to the finish line from PTC. Which it wasn't. So my careful pacing plan went out the window and I just ran up the canyon to Timp park at 8.25. And to my surprise the leaders were passing right at that moment!

I had never had the pleasure of accompanying the leaders this far into the race, usually being dropped by mile 2:), so I took advantage. I had to go at a 4:36 pace for a bit to catch up to Josh and Jonathan, who were running flawlessly in sync. It was awesome to behold, the perfect form, the submaximal effort. I ran out front for a little while but then I realized I needed to keep the speed in the tank for Ben so I dropped back in the gravel and tried to jog down SLOWLY. Then Jake came by, and Riley, and Matt, all looking really good, except Jake looked better than everyone, and with each person it was really hard to keep it slow, in fact I kept getting down in the 5s by accident. A group of 4 guys came by and I figured that Ben could be coming up any moment. So I ran backwards for a bit to see if I could see him. It turns out that the fastest I can run backwards is about a 5:40. I almost had a most embarrassing moment right there at mile 8. I saw Karl, then I was at mile 9. Waiting. For only about 2 minutes yikes he is moving! Looking kind of hashed but hanging in there great.

Turns out Sasha just couldn't let him run the first one solo, ha ha. So I joined the windbreak and hoped I still had the juice to keep up since they were running 5-10 seconds faster than I was in the Provo Half at this point. It was decently hard, but not too bad - perfect tempo pace! Ben went right up the hill and the finish line came into view. He was right at his max but the pace picked up to a punishing 5:44 for the last two miles, which put me into VO2max by the 13thmile. I backed off so they could cross the finish line without me falling over next to them and it was most triumphant! 1:15:26 is most impressive for a 14 year old. Then I realized that if I had actually entered the race I could have won Masters. ARRGH! Oh well it was really fun anyway.

So I jogged the last 2 miles back to my car with them and Steve, including a 64 second quarter at mile 16.5 just because I was still feeling great. Had to run around the parking lot to get my First Ever 60 Mile Week! Woohoo! I still feel great. This is really psycho. Splits were 7:04 to 7:25 for the uphill 8, 6:30s for the trip back to MM9, 5:57,5:58,5:44,5:44 for the last 4 of the race, and 9s back to the car.

To the gym, Springville Library, Mapleton city park, home.

Anyone is welcome to come an a downhill practice run with me tomorrow, my house 5:30 or driving to mile 1 of Hobble Creek course 5:50, up slow 1, down fast 3, up slow 3, down fast 2, up slow 1. I promise a brutal workout.

This one was pretty nasty but informative. I started at the bus dropoff for HCH, run up to the start, then down three fast. The three miles drop 160, 120, and 105 and took me 5:16, 5:20, and 5:16 so a good increasing effort across the three. I then ran back three to the HCH start slow and tried two down fast with the first moderately hard and the second very hard. I got 5:25 and 5:18. So, it looks like the endurance is coming up and even better I didn't go sub 5 on mile 1 of HCH but I am not guaranteeing it wouldn't happen in a race :)

Uphill miles were 8:15-8:30 except last one back to the car at 7:45.

Looks like yesterday was ideal, my calves feel ripped up in a million tiny places instead of two or three big ones. Nice 8 Krong Easy to make things feel good, looks like I'll rebound perfectly in time for Sat! Walter I am coming for you :P

1 hour moderate bike, really. Just getting the elasticity back to 100% for Saturday. Going to be a party! Goal is 1:12

Standard pre-race EZ 5k with three strides, one on the flat road, 14MPH on the TM, and an uphill sprint to cap it

This one was a slugfest. I figured with Walter just having done a marathon last week, all I had to do was glom on to him and follow him to his doom, then run the rest of the way on whatever I had left for the overall W. Or maybe let him pull me to a great time within my capability. Or failing that, run a disciplined 4x5:20, followed by 4x5:10, followed by 4x5:30 or until I couldn't hold it any more, followed by a disasterous last mile on the flat to uphill but still enough to do well.

It was not to be.

First off Scott showed up. Yeek. OK, maybe second. Then Lindsay Dunkley. Yikes. OK, third. Then Zack. Crap. Fourth. That's OK, operation domination is still intact for age group. So off we went to the starting line! I got a little tangled up in the starting crowd, looks like everyone wanted to be like Dave today. But Scott and Zack and Walter were all being a lot more like Dave than Dave wanted to be, in fact, after running with them down the initial big hill at a pace that once dropped to 3:53, I figured that discretion was the better part especially as I was using energy at twice the normal pace to stay in the group. Walter was beyond awesome and clearly completely unaffected by last week's race, and the other two were just plain psycho. So I dropped back but stayed in range, also being passed by Matt and Mike and one more person I believe. The Garmin wasn't working but when I passed mile 2 I saw it was at 10:10 so thank goodness I was running pretty slow, 5:35.

Oh crap that's not 5:35 that's 5:05. Math is hard in a race. OK, so now that all three plans are out the window at mile 2 and I am feeling a little tired already from going too fast now what do I do. I go to plan Z, just go to the firewall until you die and hope it's close to the finish line. I am focusing on Hobbler to be the disciplined half anyway, so this will be a good experiment to compare to. My only hope of passing any of these guys was if they accidentally brought laundry soap instead of gu, and the first thing I think of when I see a quivering pile of suds on the side of the road is not that I've passed a leader, so it probably wouldn't help all that much mentally anyway.

At mile 4 I had to stop and tie my shoe. I was shocked that Lindsay hadn't passed me yet. My cold hands moved like frozen noodles and it took me 30 seconds to do the deed. Then I got to chase Lindsay until she drifted out of sight. Now a bunch of 5:10 miles to the mouth of the canyon, just like I planned, ha ha, but Steve Andersen blew by me at+20sec or better near mile 7. Good grief, it's not bad enough to be chicked by somebody who belongs at the OTQ now I have to be beaten by a Steve too :)

But he settled in 100 yards in front and I kept gaining. Unfortunately, I hit the little wall at mile 8.5 and had to start walking the uphills. But it was only for a few seconds and he was getting killed on the hills too, especially the one at mile 10. But whenever I started back up again I would still be closing the gap, down to 20 yards at one point. He was like my own personal torture master. He had no mercy. Then the wheels totally fell off and I stopped caring. But I had to finish better than my Hobble Creek Half - I had banked 5:20 of sub-6 time so far and just a little more would put me in the 1:12s which was my goal for the day. Then Skip showed up with a magnificent 5:40 pace and dragged me .3 miles further down the road. I tried to pick it up but the aerobic just wasn't there. Maybe these high mile weeks aren't so good.

Mile 13 was beyond brutal, felt like mile 25 of St George. I really paid for the beginning miles at that point. I stumbled up the street, twisted around the turns, and cruised up the chute which just went on and on and good grief Who's the Comedian? I mean really? Oh, there's the arch. One last burst of speed and I was there. Ran some cooldown with the early arrivals, got my prize and bailed. Now we get to see what a disciplined half will do! Plus I will tie my shoes better. Here's the splits, as good as possible with the G troubles:

4:56,5:14,5:32,5:36 (shoelace)

5:11,5:09,5:20,5:32

6:11 (walk a bit),6:02,6:26 (walk more),5:51

5:47, 5:25 pace for last bit

Hey, mile 13 was brutal because I actually ran faster :) OK, that's better.

Started an easy run to the gym, sore legs said hold off a bit so I did. Hopefully I feel good enough to run with Sasha tomorrow, I am thinking yes.

Nice speed workout with Sasha this morning, we ran 5 up Provo Canyon slow. This fixed the leftover calf fatigue from AF. Then we ran down 3 miles at 5:30 except the last 500 meters at max, trying for a 73 quarter. I got a green mile and a yellow mile, followed by an orange 1100, a red 300 and a black 200, and we are talking 105% here. I haven't run that intensely in 6 years. It felt like an asthma attack at the end because I was trying to breathe so fast (but it wasn't). Times were 5:29, 5:28, and 5:15 with the last 800 in 2:28.5 and the last quarter in 71, even splits on the 110s. Sasha was pleased and so was I. Now I have to heal my calves up the rest of the way for Ragnar. It's going to be awesome.

EZ8 to the Gym and the Canyon

EZ8 down to 1600S and past parents old house

Ragnar legs 1, 13 and 25 with some running around before each leg  to get ready. The course watchers were a lot more tense about things this year, looks like somebody told them to tighten things up or else. Lovely. Anyway, the first leg started out with a smart uphill and then a trail flat/downhill, then through the canyon and town to the first exchange. I got out in front of the other six teams who had our 2:30 start by about mile 3, and widened my lead to 200 yards or so by mile 6. I somehow misread an arrow half a mile out from the exchange and turned left early, going off course. To make things worse, the Gatorade I was drinking combined with my first afternoon run in a while to turn my insides to greased rocket tubes, so I was having to hold my butt cheeks together with a truly Herculean effort, making odd Herculean noises as I went. I finally found the course again after adding .4 to it and ran from the exchange to the portapotties, where freedom promptly rang. Loudly.  Ooog. I had to visit portapotties in five additional exchanges before I started seeing tomatoes from lunch and things finally started to settle down.

Leg 13 was a leg I had wanted to run for a while, the one that descends Snow Basin to the gas station. It started off well marked with reflective arrows placed with loving care every 20 or so feet into the well manicured lawn of the lower ski slops, but quickly changed to arrows hidden like valuable Easter eggs in the tufts of grass. I was quite resolved to not get lost again though, so a bit of tiptoeing through the tulips andI found my way back to the trail and on to the road, where I Monster Mashed down the 8 miles of rolling hills and finished with a tremendous sprint that was straight from the heart. What fun!

The Nazis had decreed that if they saw our 27 foot sleeping arrangements anywhere on course we would be DQed, so I ended up sleeping in the car with Toni and Spencer. I suppose sleeping is a strong word, we each caught about eight winks or so. I finally saw dawn begin to brighten the east and waited until 5:30 when I could start to stir. Unbelieveably I still had enough in me to generate a sizable morning offering to the Honey Bucket, making what must be a record seventh successful portapotty exchange. I forgot to hydrate before my final flat 5 mile tempo run but it did not matter, I was spent and barely managed to squeeze out a 6:30. But nothing else thankfully.

We met up with SRC at the finish and it was a drama to the end as to who would come in first, but they beat us by two minutes or so. Plus the 90 minutes they started after us. Now I shall sleep.

8 EZ to the gym, found Franz on the way back and ran some pickups with him, nice .25 max pickup at the end

Excellent hill workout on the McDonalds BST route this morning, moderate run to the base, then threshold effort all along the trail. BST splits were 7:52. 8:51, 7:52. and 7:46, hills, rocks and twisties notwithstanding. A darn fine performance. I blew by two high school kids on one of the uphills like they were going the other direction. Still feeling good on the warmdown so I did a 5:18 pace for .4 miles. Calling it VO2 max but it wasn't. Why am I so much faster after the buttkicking than before? Ready for annoying nephew round one this weekend at Big Springs.

EZ7 around town and the gym,also 5X10 hill sprints and a 770 smoothly increasing screamer at the end, down to 4:20 pace

EZ8 around the town, these were really easy and clustered mostly in the 7:15-7:20 zone. Not sure why, but I felt better today than after any other run in the last month so it looks like my body thinks 50 is the new 40 now. So I'll stick in the low 50s for a few weeks, then look at moving up to the 60s for St George training in August and Sep.

I felt even better today than I did yesterday, didn't think that was possible. In fact I don't think I have felt this good in years. So I added a VO2max mile and .75 EZ on top of the normal prerace 5K to make for what was still a negligible workout - 1 hill sprint, 1 flat pickup, 1 TM mile at 5:04, and a 64 440 (also TM)

Both me and my A game are coming to Big Springs tomorrow, the nephew better be ready :)

The race so nice I ran it twice. I started off easy but it didn't matter, I was leading by10 meters at the bottom of the little hill. I quickly slowed  down on the climb and almost immediately was passed by a bunch of people, including my dang nephew who I so wanted to beat. And Seth strode by everybody like he was in a completely different race with more downhill. Good grief. Crossing the big meadow I managed to keep the nephew in range but I had to walk momentarily and he did not. I fell back to 10th place or so by the water stop in the second meadow, but my climbing legs were getting happier so I was barely walking at all. Uphill splits not too bad, 8:22, 9:08 and 9:29 OK maybe a little trouble there on the last big climb but the best was yet to come.

I was alone like usual at the top so I went into downhill monster mode right away, hoping to make up at least a little time and not get totally smoked by the little butthead. I got 5:48 on the first mile down, so decent. Then at the top of the big meadow I caught sight of him just leaving in front of Amber, totally phoning it in! Only 40 seconds in front with a little over a half mile to go. I cranked the downhill machine into 5th gear and upped the turnover, and as the pace fell through 4:30 I could see that I was visibly gaining on them. I blew by Amber at a 4 flat just after the little meadow and came around a corner and there he was, not 20 meters in front. No freeking way!! I immediately slammed it to the firewall and blasted him with a 3:45 surge, but he was not going to let me get it that easily. With less than a tenth to the park we Mario Karted at ridiculous speed. I knew that if I could jump the rail at the end of the trail before he did that I had him because nobody smokes me on downhill grass ever.

I did it! I was 6 feet in front - he's toast. I went to max speed + and to my horror I could hear him catching me! We were already at a 3:20 and dropping but I tried to eke out just a little more - no dice. I thought I was going to tumble into the finish as we passed through 19 MPH but fortunately we ran out of course before he caught me and I beat him by like two feet. Totally awesome finish. To top it off I got a 20 second PR on the course and broke my 1 mile record by 9 seconds, 4:46 for the last mile.

I am so toast at Freedom 5k next week :)

I ran the course again to cool down and did course cleanup.  46 minutes is much easier than 36.